Have experience, will travel

It is a situation that 22-year-old Adelaide communications officer Alice McCormack, working for Aus Training International, became more and more interested in as she heard streams of stories from returned volunteers.

"I'd met 500 people and heard 500 different stories," Alice recalled.

It wasn't long before Alice had packed her bags and was destined for Phnom Penh to help non government Cambodian organisation Khemara promote their services to international investors.

"My role was to increase the knowledge of them through communications materials."

As the Khemara fundraising and communications officer, Alice used skills she had honed in Australia to produce materials and design campaigns to aid the organisation.

The challenge Alice faced was to develop a communications plan and have the material and website published in both English and Khmer.

Khemara was the first non-government organisation that was established, in 1991, after the Khmer Rouge left Cambodia.

Some 12 years after the disbanding of the Khmer Rouge, Alice said she felt very safe in the country.

"It was very comfortable ... very peaceful."

Spending each day in the office, Alice's real volunteer experience began after five.

Alice spent her weekends and holiday time discovering the country with other volunteers who were posted in the area on similar assignments.

She was also able to travel to the remote north-eastern region of Ratnakiri to visit a friend.

"It was absolutely beautiful."

The memories

Alice said her final day of volunteering was made the most memorable, thanks to the staff she was working with.

As part of the organisation Alice was working for, six kindergartens were established to provide parents with low-cost facilities to have their children minded, and be provided with meals, education and healthcare.

On her last day at work, one of the kindergartens held a graduation party for a group of students who were about to progress to primary school and she was invited as a guest.

"I never worked directly with the children, my role was in communications, but it was really fantastic to see first-hand.

"It was a wonderful way to end my assignment."

The readjustment

Returning home from a year overseas, Alice said she had developed a few quirky habits that kept her friends amused.

After stopping replying to friends and colleagues in Khmer, Alice found the broken English replies were just as funny.

"Someone would say to me 'Oh Alice have you had lunch yet?' and I would say 'Have already' and I then had to think, no, hang on, let's develop a proper sentence."

She also found after living in a foreign country and not fully understanding Khmer, the background noise became a blur, but on returning to Australia the background noise was instantly understandable and almost caused sensory overload.

"It was something that took a little bit of time to adjust [too]."

Facilitators of the program had highlighted the possibility of the problem occurring upon returning, lessening the initial shock of the experience and offering ways for Alice to quickly reintegrate.

Future assignments

Austraining International program manager Brett Gresham said the organisation was currently seeking placements for up to 23 different countries.

"Largely in Asia and the Pacific, but also Africa and we have just set up shop in Latin America and the Caribbean."

Qualifications required can vary from healthcare to IT to a diversity of other specialties.

"We are looking for people who can build a capacity of organisations."

Brett was quick to point out that applicants were not sent overseas for a holiday.

"This is not voluntourism; we go there very specifically and very deliberately to build a capacity of the organisations we work with."

Alice McCormack will host a presentation on her Australian Volunteers for International Development experience at the State Library of South Australia tonight from 6:30pm, with registrations for through the Austraining site.

The Australian Volunteers for International Development progam is funded by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID).